4.3 The Heresies – Docetics & Marcionites: Denying Christ’s Humanity

By Dr. James Papandrea ( bio - articles - email ) | Dec 27, 2023 | In Way of the Fathers (Podcast)

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For the second heresy, Dr. Papandrea examines the opposite extreme from the first: these are the Docetics, including the most famous docetic teacher, Marcion and his followers. They concluded that Christ was a god, not necessarily any different from the many other gods or demigods in the Greco-Roman pantheon, but that he was not really a human.

Links

For more information on Polycarp of Smyrna, listen to Mike Aquilina’s Episode 5: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-5-st-polycarp-and-social-network/

To read Polycarp of Smyrna’s Letter to the Philippians: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1626&repos=8&subrepos=0&searchid=2365055

To listen to Polycarp of Smyrna’s Letter to the Philippians: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/st-polycarp-letter-to-philippians/

For more information on Ignatius of Antioch, listen to Mike Aquilina’s Episode 4: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-4-ignatius-antioch-to-know-jesus-christ-our-god/

To read Ignatius of Antioch’s Letter to the Smyrnaeans: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1633&repos=8&subrepos=0&searchid=2365056

To listen to Ignatius of Antioch’s Letter to the Smyrnaeans: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/st-ignatius-antioch-letter-to-smyrnaeans/

For more information on Irenaeus of Lyons, listen to Mike Aquilina’s Episode 10: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/irenaeus-lyon-putting-smack-down-on-heresy/

For more detail on the heresy of docetism and the Marcionites, see the book:
Reading the Early Church Fathers: A History of the Early Church and the Development of Doctrine: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/reading-the-church-fathers/

To connect with Dr. James Papandrea, On YouTube—The Original Church: https://www.youtube.com/@TheOriginalChurch
Join the Original Church Community on Locals: https://theoriginalchurch.locals.com/

Dr. Papandrea’s Homepage: http://www.jimpapandrea.com

Theme Music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed: https://www.ccwatershed.org/

Dr. James Papandrea is a senior fellow of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology and a Catholic member of the faculty at Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary. A theological consultant for EWTN’s series The Heresies, he is also the writer and presenter for The Original Church series on YouTube. See full bio.

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